Family • Photo Restoration • 36 • Dusil • Pets

• As huge as he was, Cezar was a gentle giant. He never bit any of us. Cezar even made futile attempts to play with our cats but was abundantly clear that – when push came to shove – he was terrified of claws. I loved our first cat Puci, but I was a bad guardian. As a toddler I wasn’t versed in the etiquette of looking after animals. To keep my toddler brain amused I tortured him endlessly. In one horrifying incident, I piled every single pillow I could find in the house, on top of him. When I eventually removed them one by one and couldn’t find him. Suddenly my mischief changed to terror, regretting that something had happened to my cat. It was one of those moments when the consequences of my actions slapped me in the face. As I scrambled to find Puci I saw him licking his wounds in the hallway. To my relief somehow he slipped out without me noticing.

• My most regretful moment was when a friend came to visit and I had this brilliant idea to impress him by dropping Puci off our first floor landing to the ground floor! “Cat’s can survive when they fall from a high distance” I said with conviction. Certainly not a proud moment. Thankfully he survived and wasn’t seriously injured. When Puci didn’t come home one day, I blamed myself. I felt that he no longer wanted to endure any more of my abuse. That realization had a lasting effect on my behavior towards our future pets.

• I cleaned up my act when we got Nuri, our second cat. He was named after the Soviet-born ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. I vowed to be good to Nuri and never hurt him. He was a strong cat. Definitely an alpha male, and Cezar didn’t mess with him. In fact Cezar didn’t mess with any creature as small as a tenth his stature.